Orpheum Theatre programs and newsletters, 1913-1933 (bulk 1913-1915)
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

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LocationCall NumberStatus
Special Collections - Upon RequestWorkroom range 3 section 2Library Use Only

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Subjects

LC Subjects
Actresses -- United States -- Biography.
Advertising -- Tennessee -- Nashville -- Sources.
Alhambra Theatre (Nashville, Tenn.).
Amusements -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Biograph Company.
Business enterprises -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Crescent Amusement Company (Nashville, Tenn.).
Essanay Film Manufacturing Co.
Field, Norman, -- 1881-1956.
Freeman, William C.
Hackett, Norman, -- b. 1874.
Hickman, George H.
Kalem Company.
Long, Billy -- Miss.
Lubin Manufacturing Company.
Motion picture actors and actresses -- United States.
Motion picture programs -- Tennessee -- Nashville -- Sources.
Motion picture theaters -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Nashville (Tenn.) -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Nashville (Tenn.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.
Orpheum Theatre (Nashville, Tenn.).
Pathe̹ FreÌ⁰res (U.S.).
Popular culture -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Selig Polyscope Company.
Silent films -- Plots, themes, etc.
Southern States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.
Theater -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Theater and society -- Southern States -- 20th century.
Theaters -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Theatrical companies -- United States.
Theatrical productions -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Theatrical programs -- Tennessee -- Nashville -- Sources.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Traveling theatre -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Vitagraph Company of America.
Wells, Jake, -- 1863-1927.
Western films -- Plots, themes, etc.
Women -- Southern States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Women -- Tennessee -- Nashville.
Women in the theater -- United States -- Biography.

More Details

Format
Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material
Physical Desc
16 folders.
Language
English

Notes

General Note
Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.
General Note
Housed in Small Collections Box 12.
Restrictions on Access
In library use only. Available by appointment.
Restrictions on Access
Most items are extremely fragile. Some are bound or partially bound together. Please handle with extreme care.
Description
Scope and content: This small collection of theatre programs and newsletters concentrates on productions at the Orpheum Theatre of Nashville, Tenn. which starred Miss Billy Long and her Players. Her specialty was apparently stories with a southern or Western theme, though she also appeared in other types of theatricals. A few newsclippings, which apparently originated from a scrapbook, include photographs of her, as do a number of the programs or newsletters during her company's run at the Orpheum in late 1913 and early 1914. Most programs include full information about the actors, play, and coming attractions, as well as innumerable sparsely-illustrated advertisements for local businesses. Three different newsletters (the Orpheum Spotlight; the Spotlight; and the Field-Glass) produced by the Orpheum are part of the collection, and they include news and features about Miss Billy Long and other actors, plot summaries, information about coming attractions, and basic information about the theatre, such as ticket pricing and times of shows. A few other materials document the performances of Norman Hackett and Norman Field and their stage companies. Both the newsletters and programs, by extension, document managers Jake Wells, George H. Hickman and William C. Freeman. A few isolated programs from the 1920s and 1930s are also included in the collection. One program is particularly noteworthy for an advertisement of Thomas A. Edison's Talking Pictures (see Folder 2, Sept. 13).
Description
Although most of the collection concerns stage performances at the Orpheum in the mid-1910s, one folder includes three programs, circa 1914, produced by the Crescent Amusement Company, highlighting films at the Fifth Avenue, Elite, and Alhambra theatres of Nashville, Tenn. All three of these programs appear to date from around 1914, and are illustrated with photographs, have some larger and illustrated advertisements, and provide some detail about the movies featured at each of the three theatres, including plot summaries and cast lists. Some of these descriptions may be particularly important, as several of the film production companies went out of business within a few a years.
Description
Plays mentioned featuring Billy Long include (Folders 1-8): The Tennessean by Will Allen Dromgoole; No-Man's Land; Beverly of Graustark; The Sweetest Girl in Dixie; In the Bishop's Carriage; The Love Route; At Cosy Corners; Because She Loved Him So; The House of a Thousand Candles; When Knighthood was in Flower; Merely Mary Ann; Texas; Clothes; The Two Orphans; He Fell in Love with His Wife; A Guilded Fool; East Lynne; Northern Lights; The Belle of Richmond.
Description
Plays mentioned featuring Norman Hackett include (Folders 9 and 10): Alias Jimmy Valentine; An American Citizen; The Man from Home; The White Sister; A Gentleman of Leisure.
Description
Plays mentioned featuring Norman Field include (Folders 11 and 12): The Lost Paradise; Tess of the Storm Country.
Description
Other plays mentioned include (Folders 13-15): The Rivals; Skidding; The Covered Wagon; Up Pops the Devil; The Mikado; His Other Wife; Broadway; Ziegfield Follies; The Student Prince in Heidelberg.
Description
Silent films mentioned in the Weekly Bulletin (Folder 16) for June 22, 1914 include: Samson (; Brought to Justice (Kalem); Broncho Billy - Outlaw (Essanay); In the Days of Slavery (Edison); Father's Flirtation (Vitagraph); By the Old Dead Tree (Biograph); The Countess (Essanay); Maria's Sacrifice (Vitagraph); Me an' Bill (Selig); Incognito (Warner); The Accomplished Mrs. Thompson (Vitagraph); The Passing of Diana; The Doctor's Mistake (Selig); Tess of the Storm Country (starring Mary Pickford); The Basket Habit (Edison); Through the Flames (Kalem); The Epidemic (Essanay); The Struggle Everlasting (Lubin); Happy-Go-Lucky (Vitagraph); Nina of the Theatre (Kalem); The Candidate for Mayor (Lubin); The Brute. Center features two-page spread of Mary Pickford in Tess of the Storm Country, with photographs.
Description
Silent films mentioned in the Weekly Bulletin (Folder 16) for July 27 include: The Other Half of the Note; Romantic Josie (Vitagraph); The Last Assignment (Edison); Who's Boss (Lubin); His Sudden Recovery (Lubin); The Little Widow (Biograph); Defying the Chief (Kalem); Broncho Billy and the Gambler (Essanay); The Mystery of the Fadeless Tints (Edison) - the eighth mystery in the Chronicles of Cleek; The Perils of Pauline - ninth episode (Pathe); The Cheeseville Cops (Biograph); The Show Busters (Biograph); A Five Hundred Dollar Kiss (Selig); His Kid Sister (Vitagraph); Gwendolyn, the Sewing Machine Girl (Biograph); Search, the Scientific Detective (Biograph); Clothes; Accused (Kalem); John Rance, Gentleman (Vitagraph); Pigs is Pigs (Vitagraph); His Last Appeal (Selig); The Indian Agent (Kalem); The Coming Champion Who Was Delayed (Essanay); Who Seeks Revenge (Lubin); A Woman's Last Card; Facing the Footlights (Pathe); The Greater Motive (Vitagraph); A Diamond in the Rough (Kalem).
Description
Silent films mentioned in the Weekly Bulletin (Folder 16) for Aug. 10 include: Don't Monkey with the Buzz Saw (Kalem); The Motor Buccaneers (Essanay); Laddie (Edison); A Siren of the Desert (Lubin); Mongrel and Master (Essanay); One Touch of Nature (Edison); The House on the Hill (Vitagraph); Grey Eagle's Revenge (Kalem); Brocho Billy's Fatal Joke (Essanay); Through Life's Window (Vitagraph); The Perils of Pauline - tenth episode (Pathe); Willie (Selig); The Man and the Master (Biograph); The Spitfire; The Billionaire (Klaw and Erlanger); David Garrick (Vitagraph); Stopping the Limited (Essanay); Private Bunny (Vitagraph); The Jungle Samaritan (Selig); The Man with the Glove (Kalem); At the End of the Rope (Kalem); The Maneuvers of Joel and Father's Second Time on Earth (Essanay); The Man with a Future (Lubin); Slippery Slim and His Tombstone (Essanay); The Heart Rebellious (Lubin); The Horse Thief (Vitagraph); The Identification (Kalem); Judith of Bethulia (Biograph). Center features two-page spread of Carlyle Blackwell in The Spitfire, with photographs.
Preferred Citation of Described Materials
Cite as: [description of item], Orpheum Theatre Programs and Newsletters, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction
Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials. This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code).
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Eugenia Peay;,Gift;,1991.,Acc. RT-223.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Catherine F. Hill;,Gift;,2003.,Acc. 2003.036
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Susan Richardson;,Gift;,2006.,Acc. 2006.034
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Brenda Colladay;,Gift;,2009.,Acc. 2009.008
Biographical or Historical Data
Administrative History: In 1914, the Orpheum Theatre stood at 210 Seventh Ave. N. in Nashville, Tenn. and was managed by George H. Hickman. The theater at that time primarily hosted stage plays. In 1909, the Fifth Avenue theater opened at 218 Fifth Ave. N. The Alhambra was right next door. In 1913, when Tony Sudekum formed the Crescent Amusement Company, he took over Fifth Avenue and Alhambra theaters, among others, and the 1908 theater known as the Crescent, located at 233 Fifth Ave. N., was renamed the Elite. In 1914, these three theaters primarily were showing films.
Language
In English
Ownership and Custodial History
Unknown provenance. Some materials appear to be from a scrapbook and were apparently collected because they are about Miss Billy Long.
Action
Process;,2012;,Linda Barnickel;,portions removed from Performing Arts Ephemera Subject Files.
Action
Process;,2020;,Linda Barnickel;,additions.
Accumulation and Frequency of Use
No further accruals are expected.

Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Freeman, W. C., & Hickman, G. H. Orpheum Theatre programs and newsletters .

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Freeman, William C and George H. Hickman. Orpheum Theatre Programs and Newsletters. .

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Freeman, William C and George H. Hickman. Orpheum Theatre Programs and Newsletters .

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Freeman, William C., and George H Hickman. Orpheum Theatre Programs and Newsletters

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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